Greetings and Introducing Yourself in English
The first phrases you need — how to greet people, introduce yourself, and answer simple questions politely.
Almost every English conversation starts the same way. Learn these few patterns and you can begin talking to people from day one.
Greetings
| Situation | Say |
|---|---|
| Any time, polite | Hello. |
| Friendly, informal | Hi. |
| Very informal | Hey. |
| Morning (before 12) | Good morning. |
| Afternoon (12–18) | Good afternoon. |
| Evening (after 18) | Good evening. |
Use Hello or Good morning with people you don't know — a teacher, a shop assistant, a colleague. Use Hi with friends.
Careful: Good night is not a greeting. It means goodbye when you leave in the evening.
Introducing yourself
- My name is Anna.
- I'm Anna. (more natural in speech)
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
The full exchange sounds like this:
A: Hello, I'm Anna.
B: Hi Anna, I'm Pavel. Nice to meet you.
A: Nice to meet you too.
In most English-speaking workplaces people introduce themselves by first name only, including to senior colleagues. Using Mr or Ms plus a surname is reserved for formal writing, school, and situations where you have been given the surname and nothing else.
Note also: Nice to meet you is for the first time only. When you see someone again, it's Nice to see you — a small slip that gets noticed.
Introducing other people
- This is Pavel. (the standard, in any situation)
- Anna, have you met Pavel?
- Let me introduce you to Pavel. (formal)
- Do you two know each other?
The person being introduced replies with the same Nice to meet you.
Asking simple questions back
Conversations work when you ask something back.
- What's your name?
- Where are you from? — I'm from Poland.
- How are you? — I'm fine, thanks. And you?
How are you? is a greeting, not a real question about your health. The normal answer is short and positive: fine, thanks or good, thanks — saying how you actually feel belongs to a longer conversation.
Its many variants all mean the same thing and all take the same short answer:
| You'll hear | Reply |
|---|---|
| How are you? | Fine, thanks. And you? |
| How's it going? | Good, thanks. |
| All right? (British) | Yeah, all right. You? |
| You all right? | Fine, thanks. |
A long, honest answer to any of these will surprise people. Save that for How have you been?, which is a real question.
Keeping it going
After the greeting, English expects one more line — otherwise the conversation stops dead:
- Did you have a good weekend?
- Cold today, isn't it?
- Have you been waiting long?
- How was your holiday?
Being polite
Two words do most of the work in English politeness:
- Please — when you ask for something. A coffee, please.
- Thank you / Thanks — when you receive something. Reply: You're welcome.
Adding please turns an order into a request. Without it, Give me a coffee sounds rude.
Saying goodbye
- Goodbye. / Bye. (friendly)
- See you tomorrow. / See you later.
- Have a good day. · Have a good evening.
- Take care. (warm)
- Nice to meet you. (when leaving someone you met today)
English rarely ends a conversation abruptly. There is usually a signal first — Anyway, I should get going · Right, I'd better be off — and then the goodbye.
These are rituals, not questions. How are you? is closer to a handshake than an enquiry: it opens the exchange and expects a matching move back. Answering it accurately, or not answering it at all, both interrupt the ritual — which is why a fluent Fine, thanks, and you? matters more here than any amount of grammar.
Try it yourself
The quiz below puts you in real situations — choose what a polite English speaker would actually say.